Drug manufacturers typically offer rebates in association with the sale and distribution of their drugs. Payers of pharmacy benefits, such as health plan providers, pharmacy benefit managers (“PBMs”), and large employer groups, typically leverage these pharmaceutical manufacturer rebates in order to manage drug costs and to ensure that their benefit offerings are competitive. Rebate arrangements are often negotiated with manufacturers, whereby rebates are provided if a set of terms and/or conditions associated with the offering of certain drugs is satisfied.
The process for negotiating rebates with manufacturers is typically time consuming. Additionally, the management of various arrangements between multiple parties is often challenging for both payers of pharmacy benefits and for drug manufacturers. Due to the significant effort, small to mid-size organizations often cannot negotiate rebates directly with drug manufacturers and, therefore, are typically forced to utilize rebate management services. In these situations, the small to mid-size organizations are often required to adhere to the terms and/or conditions for rebates that are negotiated by the rebate management services. Additionally, these conventional rebate management services are often offered by PBMs in competition with the small to mid-size organizations. As a result, the small to mid-size organizations are typically required to use the competing PBM drug formularies and to adhere to other rules enforced by the rebate management services. These requirements may limit the ability for these small to mid-size organizations to provide competitive offerings in the marketplace.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for facilitating the establishment of pharmaceutical rebate agreements or arrangements. There is also a need for pharmaceutical rebate marketplaces and methods for providing the same.